钱德拉拍摄这张由已毁灭恒星所产生的外壳照片(蓝色),复合了可见光波段(绿色)和无线电波段(红色),展示了名叫N63A的超新星遗迹的新细节,其位于大麦哲伦星云的附近。
X射线是由来自超新星爆发产生的辐射爆发加热物质至10000000摄氏度所带来的。遗迹的年龄被估计在2000到5000年这个范围内。
遗迹中心区域的可见光合无线电是最明亮的,在图片中象个三角形洞穴。这个洞穴是通过靠近地球段的浓密的冷星云和尘埃吸收X射线形成的。将无线电,可见光图片与X射线图片相对比,发现冲击波吞没了大质量星云,所以我们仅能看见靠近地球段的边缘。这种碰撞倍认为是用来刺激新恒星产生的。
围绕在遗迹边缘松散的新月形X射线特征,被认为是在恒星爆炸时高速抛出的碎片,类似炸弹的碎片。在另一个超新星遗迹里(Vela超新星遗迹)其特征已经倍观察到,清晰的月牙形状通过碎片构成。选择说明是因为他们的由来都是通过清扫距离爆炸处几光年地方的小质量星云。
Chandra has imaged the glowing shell created by the destruction of a massive star. X-rays from Chandra (blue), combined with optical (green) and radio (red) data, reveal new details in the supernova remnant known as N63A, located in the nearby galaxy of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The X-ray glow is from material heated to about ten million degrees Celsius by a shock wave generated by the supernova explosion. The age of the remnant is estimated to be in the range of 2,000 to 5,000 years.
Optical and radio light are brightest in the central region of the remnant, which appears as a triangular-shaped "hole" in the X-ray image. The hole is produced by absorption of X-rays in a dense cloud of cooler gas and dust on the side of the remnant nearest the Earth. A comparison of the X-ray image with the radio and optical images suggests that the shock wave is engulfing this massive cloud, so we see only the edge nearest the Earth. Collisions such as this are thought to trigger the formation of new generations of stars.
The fluffy crescent-shaped X-ray features that appear around the edge of the remnant are thought to be fragments of high-speed matter shot out from the star when it exploded, like shrapnel from a bomb. In the only other supernova remnant (the Vela supernova remnant) where such features have been observed, the crescent shapes are clearly produced by ejecta fragments. An alternative explanation is that they were produced when the shock wave swept over less-massive clouds located several light years away from the site of the explosion.
自翻
URL:http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/n63a/
中图
X射线
可见光
射电
3色
第1张图片的大图打包 1.24M
[ 本帖最后由 江涛 于 2008-3-12 22:49 编辑 ] |
|